Automated Apparent Responses

ABSTRACT

Software at a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game website receives a request for assistance with a game task from a first player of a MMO game. The software transmits the request to a second player of the MMO game who is associated with the first player through a relationship recognized by the MMO game. The software determines whether the second player responds to the request within a time period. The time period depends on one or more factors related to game mechanics and to user data for the first player. Then if the second player does not respond within the time period and the game task is a game task whose completion can be assigned without the assistance of another player, the software assigns completion of the game task to the first player and transmits an automated apparent response to the first player.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a divisional application of and claims priority toU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/196,852, filed on Aug. 2, 2011, andentitled “Automated Apparent Responses in Massively Multiplayer OnlineGames”. The disclosure of that application is incorporated herein byreference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

A massively multiplayer online (MMO) game is capable of supportingthousands of players simultaneously. Typically, such games involvevideo. A social MMO game is a MMO that leverages an online social graph(or network) to make a MMO game more interesting to its players. Oftensocial graphs are maintained by social networking websites such asFacebook or social media websites such as MySpace. But one might thinkof a contact or buddy list as a primitive social graph.

One tactic to make MMO games (including social MMO games) more engagingis to create a game task that is a social (or team) task, e.g., a taskthat requires assistance from a player's friends (e.g., on a socialnetworking website) to accomplish.

However, if, for example, a player has relatively few friends or if theplayer's friends play the game relatively infrequently, such a socialgame task can lead to disappointment in the player and, in the worstcase, the player's withdrawal from the game. In turn, playerdisappointment/withdrawal can result in a reduction in the game'srevenue potential (e.g., from the purchase of virtual goods or fromthird-party advertisements).

SUMMARY

In an example embodiment, a processor-executed method is described forengaging players in a MMO game. According to the method, the software ata MMO game website receives a request for assistance with a game taskfrom a first player of a MMO game. The software transmits the request toa second player of the MMO game who is associated with the first playerthrough a relationship recognized by the MMO game. The softwaredetermines whether the second player responds to the request within atime period. The time period depends on one or more factors related togame mechanics and to user data for the first player. Then if the secondplayer does not respond within the time period and the game task is agame task whose completion can be assigned without the assistance ofanother player, the software assigns completion of the game task to thefirst player; and (2) transmits an automated apparent response to thefirst player.

In another example embodiment, an apparatus is described, namely, acomputer-readable storage medium that persistently stores a program forengaging players in a MMO game. The program might be part of thesoftware at a MMO game website. The program receives a request forassistance with a game task from a first player of a MMO game. Theprogram transmits the request to a second player of the MMO game who isassociated with the first player through a relationship recognized bythe MMO game. The program determines whether the second player respondsto the request within a time period. The time period depends on one ormore factors related to game mechanics and to user data for the firstplayer. Then if the second player does not respond within the timeperiod and the game task is a game task whose completion can be assignedwithout the assistance of another player, the program assigns completionof the game task to the first player; and (2) transmits an automatedapparent response to the first player.

Another example embodiment also involves a processor-executed method forengaging players in a social MMO game. According to the method, softwareat social MMO game website receives a request for assistance with a gametask from a first player of a social MMO game. The software transmitsthe request to a second player of the social MMO game who is associatedwith the first player through a relationship that allows the secondplayer to access a profile or stream associated with the first playerand allows the first player to access a profile or stream associatedwith second player. The software monitors whether the second playerresponds to the request within a time period. The time period depends onone or more factors including data received from the profile or streamassociated with the first player. Then if the second player does notrespond within the time period and the game task is a game task whosecompletion can be assigned without the assistance of another player, thesoftware: (1) assigns completion of the game task to the first player;and (2) transmits an automated apparent response to the first player

Other aspects and advantages of the inventions will become apparent fromthe following detailed description, taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, which illustrate by way of example the principlesof the inventions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram that illustrates a network for a socialMMO game, in accordance with an example embodiment.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are flowchart diagrams that illustrate processes fortransmitting an automated apparent response to a request for assistanceon a game task, in accordance with an example embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a simplified software diagram that illustrates the serversoftware stack for a social MMO game, in accordance with an exampleembodiment.

FIG. 4A is a simplified diagram that illustrates a sequence oftransmissions associated with a social MMO game accessed from a socialnetworking website, in accordance with an example embodiment.

FIG. 4B is a simplified diagram that illustrates a sequence oftransmissions associated with a social MMO game accessed from a MMOwebsite, in accordance with an example embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the exemplary embodiments.However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the exampleembodiments may be practiced without some of these specific details. Inother instances, process operations and implementation details have notbeen described in detail, if already well known.

FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram that illustrates a network for a socialMMO game, in accordance with an example embodiment. As depicted in thisfigure, a personal computing device 102 is connected by a network 101(e.g., a wide area network (WAN) including the Internet, which might bewireless in part or in whole) with a website 103 hosting a massivelymultiplayer online game (e.g., a website such as Zynga hosting FarmVilleor Blizzard Entertainment hosting World of Warcraft) and a website 106hosting a social network (e.g., a social networking website such asFacebook or a social media website such as MySpace). The personalcomputing device 102 might be a laptop or other personal computer or amobile device such as a smartphone, e.g., an iPhone, Blackberry,Android, etc. In an example embodiment, each of the websites 103 and 106might be composed of a number of webservers connected by a network(e.g., a local area network (LAN) or a WAN) to each other in a clusteror other distributed system which might execute cloud platform softwareas described in further detail below. The webservers in website 103 and106 might also be connected (e.g., by a storage area network (SAN)) topersistent storage 105 and 107-108, respectively. In an exampleembodiment, persistent storage 105 and 107-108 might include a redundantarray of independent disks (RAID).

Persistent storage 105 (e.g., the persistent storage associated withgame N) might be used to store algorithms and data related to a game andits players, including data about the players received by website 103from website 106, as described in further detail below. In an exampleembodiment, some of the data from persistent storage 105 might be cachedin volatile memory in webservers on website 103 in order to improveperformance, as also described in further detail below. Persistentstorage 107 might be used to store profile and associated stream dataregarding the user of personal computing device 102. Similarly,persistent storage 108 might be used to store profile and associatedstream data regarding persons (e.g., friends) associated with that user,e.g., through a social graph (or network). It will be appreciated thatpersistent storage 107 and persistent storage 108 might well be the samepersistent storage. They have been depicted as separate here forpurposes of illustration to emphasize that a user typically has greateraccess rights to his/her profile and stream data than to the profile andstream data of his/her friends.

In an example embodiment, personal computing device 102 might be alaptop or other personal computer. In that event, personal computingdevice 102 and the webservers in website 103 and 106 might include (1)hardware consisting of one or more microprocessors (e.g., from the x86family or the PowerPC family), volatile storage (e.g., RAM), andpersistent storage (e.g., a hard disk or solid-state drive), and (2) anoperating system (e.g., Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Windows Server, Mac OSServer, etc.) that runs directly or indirectly (e.g., throughvirtualization software) on the hardware. Or the operating system forthe webservers might be replaced by a hypervisor or other virtualizationsoftware. In an alternative example embodiment personal computing device102 might be a mobile device that includes (1) hardware consisting ofone or more microprocessors (e.g., from the ARM family), volatilestorage (e.g., RAM), and persistent storage (e.g., flash memory such asmicroSD) and (2) an operating system (e.g., Symbian OS, RIM BlackBerryOS, iPhone OS, Palm webOS, Windows Mobile, Android, Linux, etc.) thatruns on the hardware.

Also in an example embodiment, personal computing device 102 mightinclude a web browser as an application program or part of an operatingsystem. Examples of web browsers that might execute on personalcomputing device 102 if it is a laptop or other personal computerinclude Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome.Examples of browsers that might execute on personal computing device 102if it is a mobile device include Safari, Mozilla Firefox, AndroidBrowser, and Palm webOS Browser. It will be appreciated that users ofpersonal computing device 102 might use browsers to communicate withsoftware running on the webservers at website 103 and at website 106.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are flowchart diagrams that illustrate processes fortransmitting an automated apparent response to a request for assistanceon a game task, in accordance with an example embodiment. In an exampleembodiment, one or more of the operations in these processes might beperformed by software running on the webservers at website 103 inFIG. 1. In an alternative example embodiment, one or more of theoperations in these processes might be performed by client software or aweb browser running on personal computing device 102 in FIG. 1. As usedin this disclosure, the term “software” should be broadly interpreted toencompass firmware or any other programmable logic. Moreover, in analternative example embodiment, these processes might be implemented inhardware, or a combination of hardware and software.

As depicted in FIG. 2A, software running on one or more webservers atwebsite 103 (e.g., Zynga) receives a player's request for assistancewith a game task in massively multiplayer online (MMO) game (e.g.,raising a barn in FarmVille), in operation 201. In operation 202, thesoftware broadcasts the player's request (e.g., through a game graphicand/or notification) for assistance to persons associated with therequesting player through a team roster, a contact or buddy list, or anonline social graph (or network). In an example embodiment, the personsassociated with the requesting player might be the player's Facebookfriends who are players of the MMO game or, more generally, the player'sFacebook friends. Also, in an example embodiment, the request might bebroadcast using an application programming interface (API) exposed bysoftware running on a social networking website or social media websitedepicted as website 106 in FIG. 1. Examples of such APIs includeFacebook (REST) API, Facebook Graph API, Twitter API, Bebo's SocialNetworking API (SNAPI), OpenSocial API, etc. It will be appreciated thatthe Facebook APIs allow authorized third parties (e.g., third partieswith an access token and/or permissions) to access a user's Facebookprofile (e.g., for transmitting a Facebook notification) and the streamor feed (e.g., News Feed) associated with that profile.

In operation 203, the software determines whether the persons associatedwith the requesting player (e.g., the requesting player's Facebookfriends who are players of the MMO) respond to the request forassistance (e.g., by clicking on the graphic representing the request)within a time period that is either pre-determined or dynamicallydetermined, e.g., at runtime. In an example embodiment, the duration ofthe time period depends on factors such as: (1) the number of personsassociated with the requesting player (e.g., the number of therequesting player's Facebook friends who are players of the MMO); (2)the requesting player's game status and game history; (3) the gamemechanics including the criticality of the game task to progress in thegame and the price (real or virtual) of the game task; and/or (4) socialdata about the requesting player or the persons associated with therequesting player who are also playing the MMO game (e.g., posts to therequesting player's Facebook profile and stream or posts to the profilesand streams of the requesting player's Facebook friends who are alsoplaying the MMO game). For example, the requesting player might post astatus update to his/her profile and/or stream indicating frustrationwith the lack of response to the request for assistance, resulting in ashortening of the time period used in operation 203.

Then in operation 204, the software assigns completion of the game taskto the requesting player and notifies the requesting player using anautomated apparent response indicating the requested assistance wasprovided (e.g., by one or more of the persons associated with therequesting player) if: (1) all or enough of the persons associated withthe requesting player (e.g., the requesting player's Facebook friendswho are also playing the MMO game) do not respond or respond negativelywithin the time period; and (2) if assignment of completion of the taskis otherwise permitted by the game mechanics.

As indicated above, the duration of the time period in operation 203depends on a number of representative factors, one of which is therequesting player's game status and game history. The requestingplayer's game status might depend on, among other things, the gameresources currently available to the requesting player (e.g., the amountof the requesting player's virtual currency, virtual goods, virtualservices, virtual energy, etc.) and/or the game level of the requestingplayer, in an example embodiment. Also in an example embodiment, therequesting player's history might include the number of times therequesting player has made the same or a similar request, including thenumber of times the requesting player has made a similar request inanother MMO game on the same website. In an alternative exampleembodiment, the duration of the time period in operation 203 might alsodepend on the game status and the game history of each person associatedwith the requesting person.

FIG. 2B is a flowchart diagram that illustrates another process fortransmitting an automated apparent response to a request for assistanceon a game task, in accordance with an example embodiment. Here again, inan example embodiment, one or more of the operations in this processmight be performed by software running on the webservers at website 103in FIG. 1. In an alternative example embodiment, one or more of theoperations in this process might be performed by client software or abrowser running on personal computing device 102 in FIG. 1.

As depicted in FIG. 2B, software running on one or more webserversreceives a player's request for assistance with a game task in massivelymultiplayer online (MMO) game (e.g., raising a barn in FarmVille), inoperation 201. In operation 202, the software broadcasts the player'srequest (e.g., through a game graphic and/or notification) forassistance to persons associated with player through a team roster, acontact or buddy list, or an online social graph (or network). Hereagain, in an example embodiment, the persons associated with therequesting player might be the player's Facebook friends who are playersof the MMO game or, more generally, the player's Facebook friends. Also,in an example embodiment, the request might be broadcast using anapplication programming interface (API) exposed by software running on asocial networking website or social media website depicted as website106 in FIG. 1.

In operation 203 of FIG. 2B, the software determines whether the personsassociated with the requesting player (e.g., the requesting player'sFacebook friends who are players of the MMO) respond to the request forassistance (e.g., by clicking on the graphic representing the request)within a time period that is either pre-determined or dynamicallydetermined, e.g., at runtime. In an example embodiment, the duration ofthe determined time period depends on factors related to user data forthe requesting player and game mechanics, as described earlier withrespect to FIG. 2A. Then in operation 204 of FIG. 2B, the softwareassigns completion of the game task to the requesting player andnotifies the requesting player using an automated apparent responseindicating that the requesting player is being rewarded for his/herstatus or virtuous and/or admirable game play (e.g., generosity inassisting other players with their game tasks or other similar quality)if: (1) all or enough of the persons associated with the requestingplayer (e.g., the requesting player's Facebook friends who are alsoplaying the MMO game) do not respond or respond negatively within thedetermined time period; and (2) if assignment of completion of the taskis otherwise permitted by the game mechanics.

FIG. 3 is a simplified software diagram that illustrates the serversoftware stack for a social MMO game, in accordance with an exampleembodiment. As depicted in this figure, a player is using a web browser301 with support for HTML5 and the Adobe Flash platform on a personalcomputing device (e.g., a laptop or smartphone) to interact with asoftware stack 303 on a website hosting a social MMO game. In an exampleembodiment, such a software stack might be implemented using a public,private, or hybrid cloud platform, e.g., a hybrid cloud platform whosepublic cloud is Amazon Electric Compute Cloud (EC2) and whose privatecloud is built using Cloud.com's CloudStack software. Of course, in analternative example embodiment, the software stack might be implementedusing other public clouds and/or other private clouds that providesimilar functionality. Or, the software stack might be implementedwithout resort to third-party cloud platforms (e.g., using loadbalancing and virtualization software provided by Citrix, VMware,Microsoft, or Xen, Map-Reduce and/or Google Filesystem software such asHadoop, memory management/caching software such as Memcached andMembase, structured storage software such as MySQL, NoSQL, etc.).Parenthetically, it will be appreciated that SQL is an acronym whichstands for Structured Query Language.

Returning to FIG. 3, the software stack 303 includes load balancers 304(e.g., the load balancing and virtualization software provided byCitrix, VMware, Microsoft, or Xen) that balance the load between thewebservers (e.g., Apache HTTP servers) in an elastic (or dynamic) array305. It will be appreciated that the array is elastic because its sizecan be increased to accommodate additional webservers and decreased toaccommodate fewer webservers. As further depicted in FIG. 3, thewebservers in the elastic array 305 transmit HTTP requests to and fromthe web browser 301 and webservers on a social networking (or socialmedia) website 302 such as Facebook. In an example embodiment, thewebservers read data in a relatively “hot” state from and write data ina relatively “hot” state to memory caches 306 (e.g., memory cachescreated with Memcached and managed with MemBase), which in turn arebacked by NoSQL databases 307. It will be appreciated that performancelatencies can be significantly reduced by such an arrangement, whichexploits both locality of reference and an absence of database-queryoverhead. But to conserve cache resources and reduce the size (andtherefore the search time) of NoSQL databases, among other reasons, thewebservers also read and write data to sync queues 308 in memory, whichin turn, might be connected to query-language databases (e.g., MySQL)309. It will be appreciated that this queued arrangement enables thedeferred persistent storage of data which is not in a relatively “hot”state, e.g., a request for assistance with a game task as describedabove.

FIG. 4A is a simplified diagram that illustrates a sequence oftransmissions associated with a social MMO game accessed from a socialnetworking website, in accordance with an example embodiment. As usedhere and elsewhere in this disclosure, the term “social networkingwebsite” is to be broadly interpreted to include, for example, anywebsite that allows its users to selectively access (e.g., according toa contact list, buddy list, social graph, etc.) each other's profilesand/or streams or selectively communicate (e.g., according to a contactlist, buddy list, social graph, etc.) with each other (e.g., using amessaging protocol such as email, instant messaging, short messageservice or SMS, etc.). As depicted in this diagram, a player has used abrowser 401 on a client computer to log onto a social networkingwebsite, e.g., server software 402 (e.g., Facebook).

In operation 1, the player clicks on a graphic for a social MMO game,causing browser 401 to transmit an HTTP request to server software 402(e.g., Facebook) for the game's initial web page. In operation 2, serversoftware 402 (e.g., Facebook) returns an HTML5 and JavaScript (JS) webpage consisting of an iFrame (e.g., Facebook “chrome”) and an iFrameHTML tag for the game's initial web page. In operation 3, the browseruses the HTML tag to transmit a request to server software 403 (e.g.,Zynga) for the game's initial web page to display inside the iFrame. Thegame's initial web page might be an application server page (e.g., PHP5) or an HTML5 page. In operation 4, the application server pageexecutes on server software 403 (e.g., Zynga), resulting in requests todatabases and other servers as needed to complete generation of the webpage, including possibly an HTTP request (not shown) transmitted to anAPI exposed by server software 402 (e.g., Facebook). In operation 5, theserver software 403 (e.g. Zynga) returns the game's initial web page(e.g., HTML5 and JS) for the browser to display in the iFrame.

At some point thereafter, in operation 6, the player clicks on a graphic(e.g., representing a graphical user interface or GUI widget) on a gameweb page (e.g., HTML5 and JS), causing browser 401 to transmit an HTTPrequest to server software 403 (e.g., Zynga), requesting assistance on agame task. In operation 7, the server software 403 (e.g. Zynga) returnsa web page (e.g., HTML5 and JS) to the browser indicating that therequest was received. In operation 8, the server software 403 (e.g.,Zynga) transmits an HTTP request to an API exposed by server software402 (e.g., Facebook), posting a request for assistance to the profiles(e.g., through a Facebook notification) and/or streams of the requestingplayer's friends on the social network managed by server software 402(e.g., Facebook). It will be appreciated that in order to access thefriends' profiles and/or streams (e.g., using an access token), theserver software 403 (e.g., Zynga) might have earlier obtained permissionfrom the friends, e.g., when they joined the game. Then in operation 9,server software 402 (e.g., Facebook) sends a response, e.g., in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), to server software 403 (e.g., Zynga)describing the success or failure of the posting to each profile and/orstream. In a subsequent session, server software 403 (e.g., Zynga) mightuse operations similar to operations 8 and 9 to transmit an automatedapparent response to the player, as described earlier.

In an alternative example embodiment, the game's initial web page (orsome subsequent web page served up by the game) might have an AdobeFlash application (e.g., a Small Web Format or SWF file) embedded in it.In this alternative example embodiment, the user of browser 401 mightthereafter interact with the Adobe Flash application (e.g., its GUI),causing it to interact with the server software 402 (e.g., Facebook) andthe server software 403 (e.g., Zynga).

FIG. 4B is a simplified diagram that illustrates a sequence oftransmissions associated with a social MMO game accessed from a MMOwebsite, in accordance with an example embodiment. In operation 1, theplayer clicks on a graphic for a social MMO game, causing browser 401 totransmit an HTTP request to server software 403 (e.g., Zynga) for thegame's initial web page. The game's initial web page might be anapplication server page (e.g., PHP 5) or an HTML5 page. In operation 2,the application server page executes on server software 403 (e.g.,Zynga), resulting in requests to databases and other servers as neededto complete generation of the web page, including possibly an HTTPrequest (not shown) transmitted to an API exposed by server software 402(e.g., Facebook). In operation 3, the server software 403 (e.g. Zynga)returns the game's initial web page (e.g., HTML5 and JS) for the browserto display.

At some point thereafter, in operation 4, the player clicks on a graphic(e.g., representing a GUI widget) on a game web page (e.g., HTML5 andJS), causing browser 401 to transmit an HTTP request to server software403 (e.g., Zynga), requesting assistance on a game task. In operation 5,the server software 403 (e.g. Zynga) returns a web page (e.g., HTML5 andJS) to the browser indicating that the request was received. Inoperation 6, the server software 403 (e.g., Zynga) transmits an HTTPrequest to an API exposed by server software 402 (e.g., Facebook),posting a request for assistance to the profiles (e.g., through aFacebook notification) and/or streams of the requesting player's friendson the social network managed by server software 402 (e.g., Facebook).Here again, it will be appreciated that in order to access the friends'profiles and/or streams (e.g., using an access token), the serversoftware 403 (e.g., Zynga) might have earlier obtained permission fromthe friends, e.g., when they joined the game. Then in operation 7,server software 402 (e.g., Facebook) sends a response, e.g., in JSON, toserver software 403 (e.g., Zynga) describing the success or failure ofthe posting to each profile and/or stream. In a subsequent session,server software 403 (e.g., Zynga) might use operations similar tooperations 6 and 7 to send an automated apparent response to the player,as described earlier.

Here again, in an alternative example embodiment, the game's initial webpage (or some subsequent web page served by the game) might have anAdobe Flash application (e.g., a Small Web Format or SWF file) embeddedin it. In this alternative example embodiment, the user of browser 401might thereafter interact with the Adobe Flash application (e.g., itsGUI), which, in turn, might interact with the server software 402 (e.g.,Facebook) and the server software 403 (e.g., Zynga).

It will be appreciated that the description above uses Facebook as anexample of a social networking website, in numerous instances. This useis intended to be illustrative, rather than limiting. Other socialnetworking websites, such as Google+, might have been used instead ofFacebook. Or the description might have used a social media website,such as MySpace. As previously noted, the term “social networkingwebsite” as used in this disclosure is to be broadly interpreted toinclude, for example, any website that allows its users to selectivelyaccess (e.g., according to a contact list, buddy list, social graph,etc.) each other's profiles and/or streams or selectively communicate(e.g., according to a contact list, buddy list, social graph, etc.) witheach other.

Some portions of the disclosure describe algorithms and symbolicrepresentations of operations on data bits within a computer memory.These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used bythose skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey thesubstance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm ishere, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps(instructions) leading to a desired result. The steps are thoserequiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, thoughnot necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical, magneticor optical signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined,compared and otherwise manipulated. It is convenient at times,principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals asbits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or thelike.

Furthermore, it is also convenient at times, to refer to certainarrangements of steps requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities as modules or code devices, without loss of generality. Itshould be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the context, descriptionsutilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or“determining” or “displaying” or “determining” or the like, refer to theaction and processes of a computer system, or similar electroniccomputing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented asphysical (electronic) quantities within the computer system memories orregisters or other such information storage, transmission, or displaydevices.

Certain aspects of the example embodiments include process steps andinstructions described herein in the form of an algorithm. It should benoted that the process steps and instructions of the example embodimentscould be embodied in software, firmware, or hardware, and when embodiedin software, could be downloaded to reside on and be operated fromdifferent platforms used by a variety of operating systems. Some exampleembodiments also relate to an apparatus for performing the operationsdescribed in the disclosure. This apparatus might be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise ageneral-purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program mightbe stored in a computer-readable storage medium, such as, but is notlimited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks,CO-ROMs, magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), randomaccess memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards,application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or any type of mediasuitable for storing electronic instructions.

Furthermore, one or more of computers referred to in the disclosuremight include a single processor or might be architectures employingmultiple processor designs for increased computing capability. Thealgorithms and/or displays described in the disclosure are notinherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus.Various general-purpose systems may also be used with programs inaccordance with the teachings described in the disclosure, or it mightprove convenient to construct more specialized apparatuses to performthe described method steps.

In addition, the example embodiments in the disclosure are not describedwith reference to any particular programming language. It will beappreciated that a variety of programming languages might be used toimplement the example embodiments.

Accordingly, the disclosure of the example embodiments is intended to beillustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the inventions, whichare set forth in the following claims and their equivalents. Althoughexample embodiments of the inventions have been described in some detailfor purposes of clarity of understanding, it will be apparent thatcertain changes and modifications can be practiced within the scope ofthe following claims. In the following claims, elements and/or steps donot imply any particular order of operation, unless explicitly stated inthe claims or implicitly required by the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising operations of: receiving a request for assistance with a game task from a first player of a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game; transmitting the request to a second player of the MMO game; determining whether the second player responds to the request within a time period, wherein the time period depends on one or more factors including data received from the profile or stream associated with the first player; assigning completion of the game task to the first player, if the second player does not respond within the time period; and transmitting an automated apparent response to the first player, if the second player does not respond within the time period, wherein each operation of the method is executed by one or more processors.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second player of the MMO game is associated with the first player through a relationship recognized by the MMO game.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second player of the MMO game is associated with the first player through a social graph or social network.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the automated apparent response indicates that the second player provided the requested assistance.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the automated apparent response indicates that the first player was assigned completion of the game task because the first player assisted other players with their game tasks.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the time period is pre-determined.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the time period is dynamically determined at run-time.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data received from the profile or stream associated with the first player includes a status report from the first player.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the status report expresses frustration with a lack of response to the request.
 10. One or more computer-readable media persistently storing a program, wherein the program, when executed, instructs one or more processors to perform the following operations: receive a request for assistance with a game task from a first player of a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game; transmit the request to a second player of the MMO game; determine whether the second player responds to the request within a time period, wherein the time period depends on one or more factors including data received from the profile or stream associated with the first player; assign completion of the game task to the first player, if the second player does not respond within the time period; and transmit an automated apparent response to the first player, if the second player does not respond within the time period.
 11. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the second player of the MMO game is associated with the first player through a relationship recognized by the MMO game.
 12. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the second player of the MMO game is associated with the first player through a social graph or social network.
 13. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the automated apparent response indicates that the second player provided the requested assistance.
 14. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the automated apparent response indicates that the first player was assigned completion of the game task because the first player assisted other players with their game tasks.
 15. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the time period is pre-determined.
 16. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the time period is dynamically determined at run-time.
 17. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the data received from the profile or stream associated with the first player includes a status report from the first player.
 18. The computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the status report expresses frustration with a lack of response to the request.
 19. A method, comprising the operations of: receiving a request for assistance with a game task from a first player of a social MMO game; transmitting the request to a second player of the social MMO game who is associated with the first player through a relationship that allows the second player to access a profile or stream associated with the first player and allows the first player to access a profile or stream associated with second player; monitoring whether the second player responds to the request within a time period, wherein the time period is dynamically determined at run-time and wherein the time period depends on one or more factors including data received from the stream associated with the first player; assigning completion of the game task to the first player, if the second player does not respond within the time period and the game task is a game task whose completion can be assigned without the assistance of another player; and transmitting an automated apparent response to the first player, if the second player does not respond within the time period and the game task whose completion can be assigned without the assistance of another player, wherein each operation of the method is executed by one or more processors.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the data received from the stream associated with the first player includes a status report from the first player. 